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Exotic Babies at the Steinhardt Estate

My friends and neighbors in Bedford, Michael and Judy Steinhardt, live in a veritable paradise. In fact, their fifty-four acre property can be described as an exotic wonderland. All the landscaping is an ongoing project of Jerome and Carole Rocherolle, owners of Shanti Bithi Nursery in Stamford, Connecticut. The property includes beautiful woodland plants and spectacular flowering shrubs, moss-covered bridges and ponds, and more than 400 cultivars of maple trees. But the grounds also feature a menagerie of animals, including camels, zebras, wallabies, ostriches, and hundreds of other exotics and waterfowl. It’s always fun to visit and wander around. Please enjoy these photos of some of the Steinhardt’s recent arrivals.

1 Coco, a 3-month-old camel, shares a living space with Angel, a young llama.

2 Sadly, after birth, Coco's mother, wanted nothing to do with her and would not feed her.

3 This is Zach feeding Coco. The bottle contains a milk formula especially for camels.

4 Coco drinks quickly and gets a bottle like this three times daily.

5 At six months of age, Coco will be weaned from the bottle.

6 Bottoms up!

7 With agile hands, Jason grabbed hold of an East African Crowned Crane.

8 These beautiful birds are known for the complicated and energetic dancing, and keen eye sight.

9 This is a Sarus Crane - the largest of all cranes. These non-migratory birds are found in parts of the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

10 In India Sarus Cranes are considered symbols of marital fidelity, as they mate for life and pine the loss of their mates even to the point of starving to death.

11 The sexes do not differ in plumage although males are on average larger than females. The bare red skin of the adult's head and neck turns brighter during the breeding season.

12 These are Egyptian geese. They are very pugnacious and aggressive, especially during breeding season. They are intolerant of other birds and are among the most vicious of all waterfowl.

13 These are African porcupines - when danger approaches, they raise the long quills on their backs and tails, making them vibrate and producing a very scary sound.

14 One week ago, this little baby was born.

15 Zach managed to catch the little creature.

16 The babies have soft quills but by ten days, those quills become hard, sharp, and nasty.

17 This baby is still adorable!

18 Right near the porcupine pen is an aviary containing these beautiful and colorful macaws.

19 The llamas also had a baby recently.

20 These birds live in the llama pen. The one on the left is an emu and the other is a rhea. Like the ostrich, these are flightless birds.

21 This is a cria, the name for a baby llama. It is four weeks old.

22 The mother was very concerned about her cria.

23 That's enough visiting for one day!

24 Adjacent to the llama pen is the lemur house. Lemurs are a special group of primates found only on Madagascar off the coast of Africa.

25 These are ring-tailed lemurs with mother on the left and her two month old baby.

26 Of the 50 species of lemurs, 17 are on the endangered species list. Habitat loss is the main threat to lemurs, as people clear their native forests for farm land.

27 This lemur is a Red Ruffed. Lemurs usually have a vegetarian diet, consisting of leaves and fruit, although they will occassionally eat insects or smaller animals.

28 Most lemurs are arboreal, which means they spend most of their time in trees and bushes. Alarmingly, eighty percent of the lemur's original habitat in Madagascar has been destroyed.

29 With their long noses, lemurs have an excellent sense of smell, which they rely heavily upon.

30 This large duck is called a Flightless Steamer and it cannot fly due to its short wings. Instead, it uses those wings in a circular paddling motion to 'steam' across the surface of the water looking a bit like a paddle steamer.

31 This gorgeous cat is called a serval, native to sub-saharan Africa. Its large ears are highly sensitive and allow them to zero in on prey that they cannot even see.

32 There is also an enormous aviary on the property, containing many species of water fowl and other birds. These ducks were hatched in an incubator from random eggs found after mating season.

33 Because they are still so young, it's impossible to know what species of ducks were hatched. Time will tell.